The NASA rover Curiosity is set to use its drill for the first time on Mars in a region where water once possibly flowed, scientists say. Boring into a rock would be one of the 1-ton rover’s most difficult tasks since arriving on the Red Planet Aug. 5.

“This is something that we waited patiently for and accepted risk in driving to this destination,” said mission scientist John Grotzinger, of Caltech. “This has been very exciting.”

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has for the first time used the camera on its arm to take photos at night, illuminated by white lights and ultraviolet lights on the instrument.

This image of a Martian rock illuminated by white-light LEDs (light emitting diodes) is part of the first set of nighttime images taken by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera at the end of the robotic arm of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

This image of a Martian rock illuminated by ultraviolet LEDs (light emitting diodes) is part of the first set of nighttime images taken by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera at the end of the robotic arm of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Not content with laser-burning and scrubbing Mars rock, Curiosity has now drilled into a rocky target, exposing the pristine geological bounty inside. This is the first time a robot has carried out a drilling operation on another planet. What’s more, the action of drilling its way into the “John Klein” outcrop has dislodged material near the drill bit (pictured above), exposing a bright vein presumably rich in calcium sulfate.

It looks like the Curiosity A computer has a problem related to flash memory. Curiosity has started using the backup B computer. This could be a problem for any computer on the Earth, but difficult to solve on Mars. While a rotating hard disk works even if it has some bad blocks, a solid state disk may become unreadable.
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